Dr Vanessa Heggie
Engagement & Communications
Vanessa Heggie is a historian of science and medicine in the modern period, and an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Her research ranges widely over the history of biosciences and health, from sex testing in sport to domestic science education. Her publications include A History of British Sports Medicine (MUP, 2011) and Higher and Colder: A History of Extreme Physiology and Exploration (Chicago, 2019; Italian trans. 2021, Japanese trans. 2023). She is particularly interested in the history of field work and exploration in science, in physiology including diet and exercise, and in the often racialised understandings of how the climate and environment affect both bodies and culture; her work increasingly includes research into environmental and food history.
She is an experienced outreach professional, having appeared on multiple podcasts, consulted for visual media productions, worked with museums and art galleries, and presented to large STEM audiences at international events. Her work has been used by the ACLU and by the UN in consultations about trans rights in sport.
Vanessa welcomes media and academic enquiries on any aspect of her research expertise outlined above.